Short Leave on Return: Campfire Songs

[Briar Williams]

Briar had thought trading the freewheeling life of a small-time crook for an honest company job would have been nice and dull, but her first day on the Brass Ferrett had been anything but. Between the daring rescue mission and the fuel malfunction on the way back, she figured everybody on the crew had gotten enough excitement to last them a month.

David took the whole series of unfortunate events in his stride like a pro, but Briar thought she caught a whiff of the blues from him nonetheless. And why wouldn't he be bummed out? It certainly hadn't helped that Captain Broom had insisted on twisting the knife in his wounded pride. Coincidentally, Briar found the name very fitting for a man who appeared to have one lodged up his pi-gu.

To top it all off, Carrie had apparently turned in her resignation papers. It was a loss Briar didn't feel herself, having only just met the woman, but she could tell it was a major bummer for David and Sienna. E.V. had been running on fumes all day, and God only knew what poor Freya was going through after her near death experience. All in all, Briar figured every last one of them deserved a break. As the seemingly endless day finally drew to a close and night fell over the Beylix docks, the pilot pulled up a chair in the galley and sat down with her guitar. Music always helped her wind down and relax after a rough day, and she was hoping it would to the same for the rest of the crew. It had been one of the few pleasures that the prisoners on Muir had been able to indulge in between their long hours of labor. If music could cheer up a penal colony, surely it could do the same for a band of tired spacefarers.

Briar strummed carefully at first, feeling the acoustics of the galley, but soon a cheerful little tune echoed through the corridors of the small ship.

"I've got a hundred and sixty acres in the valley... Got a hundred and sixty acres of the best... Got an old stove there that'll cook three square, and a bunk where I can lay me down to rest..."

Her voice was soft and a little raspy, not the trained voice of a professional singer, but one that most people would find pleasant nonetheless. If the rest of the crew liked her singing: great! She would be happy to lift their spirits with her performance. Maybe they'd even join her, which was even better. If someone didn't like it, well, they'd probably be drawn to the galley to chew her out, and she could use the opportunity to start a conversation with them. Either way it made for a good ice breaker.

[David Maverick]

David stood in the doorway between the Bridge and the galley, leaning nonchalantly against the door frame. He had his arms folded and his legs crossed at the ankle. He was watching and listening to Briar with a look of muted joy. He had heard the first strains of her strumming and immediately come to see the source of the sound. His intention had been to move quietly so that she wouldn't notice he was listening, so that he could stand and take in the show without disturbing her. He didn't know her well enough to know whether she was hoping for a guiet moment alone or whether she wanted her music to draw and audience.

He shifted his weight; or rather, a weight seemed to shift from him.

As he did so, he inadvertently made enough sound that if Briar hadn't noticed him yet, she would surely know he was there now.

[Briar Williams]

"Up at dawn to greet the sun
I've forgotten what a care or worry means
Head for home when day is done
With the pocket money jinglin' in my je-

Briar stopped when she heard a soft noise behind her, and looked over her shoulder to see the captain standing in the doorway. He did not look unhappy with her music, which in turn made her beam at him. Just according to plan.

"Heya, Cap", she greeted him."I hope you're makin' that face 'cos you like what you're hearin', and not 'cos you're trying not to laugh at my singin'."

She pulled up the chair next to her and gestured towards it.

"C'mon, I saved you the front row seat. How you holdin' up, Cap?"

[David Maverick]

For a brief moment a genuinely pained expression crossed David's face - pain at the thought that Briar could think even for a second that he would be laughing at her. The expression was short-lived: the idea had hurt him and was then immediately gone and forgotten - or squashed and hidden.

"Of course I'm not laughing," he was quick to assure her with his usual charismatic grin. "I was impressed; I am impressed."

He sauntered into the room and took up the offered chair.

"Me? I'm doing fine."

Okay, he could be a little more honest than that. After all, if he wanted his crew to feel comfortable opening up to him he needed to open up to them, too.

"Crew changes are always tough, especially so many at once. Carrie and Sienna leaving has come as quite a shock, but," he shrugged and gave another of his grins. This one was a little less exuberant and a little more wry. "Gǒu shǐ fāshēngle [sh*t happens]"

He twisted in his seat, getting comfortable with one ankle crossed over the other.

"So, you know any [verse-equivalent to Metallica]?"

[Briar Williams]

Briar's grin widened when David praised her performance. She didn't really fancy herself that good of a musician, but it felt nice when people complimented her for it, perhaps even better than being complimented on her piloting. Maybe it was because it was a skill she'd decided to pick up completely out of her volition, not something she was required to excel at in order to earn her daily bread.

At David's request for dad rock, she laughed -- not mockingly, just taken by surprise, then immediately amused by her own reaction. Of course it made sense for him to be a fan.

"'Fraid not", she said. "I ain't got much of a repertoire to be honest, just a few favorites I keep playing over and over again. You'll probably get sick of them soon enough, so I gotta get in all the tunes I can get in the meantime."

She'd stopped singing for now, though, and just quietly strummed on her guitar, kind of absentmindedly. For a moment there she'd been about to launch into a story about how music had made her year on Muir slightly less miserable, but had stopped herself at the last minute, in an uncharacteristic act of restrain. That little stain on her permanent record was nothing compared to what the assorted crooks she was used to mingling with had been charged with, but she didn't really know what honest folks like David made of it -- or if she would have even landed this job if it weren't for Airi pulling a few strings behind the scenes.

"So, uh...", she began, feigning casualty and staring at the strings of her guitar as she strummed away at them, an excellent excuse to avoid eye contact. "How much do you know about the folks that the company hires? Do you, like, get a detailed rap sheet or do you just trust Zeke's judgment?"

[David Maverick]

Briar got a raised eyebrow when she laughed at his request. It was entirely genial.

At the prospect of hearing the same few tunes over and over again, David grimaced and feigned concern.

"It's okay, the Bridge has a pretty good sound system, I'm pretty sure I can drown you out if I ever need to."

The idea of trusting Zeke's judgement amused David and it probably showed on his face but he wouldn't say anything against his superior out loud. That was his military respect for the chain of command, even if the guy above you was a buhn dahn.

"I get your Cortex record, employment application and resume, if you have one. Zeke makes the hiring decisions. He pretty much tells me whose on my boat and for how long, but if someone doesn't fit Brass Ferret it's not like they can't be reassigned."

He eyed her for a moment, trying to figure out if there was something on her mind or if she was just curious. He decided to ask.

"Why, you got a concern about someone on the crew?" he asked. He tried to be the type of Captain that any of his crew could bring concerns to, even sensitive ones.

[Briar Williams]

"Why, you got a concern about someone on the crew?"

"Oh, no, y'all seem like upstandin' folks," Briar said quickly, then fell quiet. A small wrinkle appeared between her brows as she sunk into thought for a second, then disappeared as quickly as it had emerged.

"Well, I guess that's just it-- I ain't really used to having a job with... proper contracts and codes of conduct and all that fancy... legal... stuff. I mean, if you read my Cortex record you'd know I did some time. Don't exactly have a clean track record."

Her eyes were still fixed on the strings of her guitar, but she'd moved from strumming to absentmindedly plucking at them. A nervous chuckle suddenly escaped her lips

"Yē sū, I sound so dramatic. I dunno why I'm pouring my heart out to you, I mean, I was supposed to start over with a clean slate but I guess this defeats the purpose. And I ain't even been drinking since this morning!"

Briar could feel a small rumble of anxiety in the pit of her stomach. It was funny; she'd screwed up plenty of times in her life and taken some pretty catastrophic setbacks in her stride, yet this one simple conversation going slightly off the rails was threatening to set off her internal alarm bells. Maybe her screw-up-detector that was supposed to tell her when to panic was deficient somehow.

[David Maverick]

Usually David would have had this conversation with a new crew member immediately upon first meeting but the way things had gone, that just hadn't been possible. And Briar's apparent uncertainty now reaffirmed to David how important these conversations really were.

"Starting over with a clean slate is a lot trickier than it seems. How does one learn from the past without dwelling in it?" David mused. He asked the question very much like he didn't have the answer.

His hands slid into his pockets and his legs stretched out, taking up a relaxed position.

"Briar, I've seen your record. It doesn't concern me. You're here now to do a job and as long as you do that job, you'll keep that job."

He paused briefly before smiling wide. "And as for pouring your heart out to me, well, you go on pouring whenever you need. I'm always here to listen."

[Freya]

After their conversation on the bridge and her welcome onto the ship from the Captain himself, they'd parted ways and he'd headed toward the music playing in the direction of the galley. Freya had, of course, gone in the opposite direction, counting the hatches on her way down the hall and stopping when she found the one she thought might've been the one heading toward the dining area. Of course, she couldn't really be sure but she figured it would hurt to wander around the ducts and crawl spaces until she found where she was wanting to go. It'd be a great way to get to know the ship better and add to her protective layer of dust and grime.

In the end it had taken her several long minutes and most of the Captain and Briar's conversation before she finally found herself sitting with her thighs against her chest and her knees bent in the crawl space behind a sealed grate in the galley.

"- to do a job and as long as you do that job, you'll keep that job," the Captain said to Briar, although the Wisp hadn't heart the part proceeding it. She got comfortable, setting her chin on her knees and closing her eyes, finding comfort in the confined space.

"And as for pouring your heart out to me, well, you go on pouring whenever you need. I'm always here to listen," the Captain continued and the girl couldn't help but to open one eye and peek out at him through the grating, grinning to herself. He was a good Captain, and she was still fairly certain he was the love of her life. With her other eye still closed, she turned her gaze to Briar, looking over what she could see of the woman and nodding a little to herself.

[Briar Williams]

Briar remained tense as David spoke, but upon hearing his final words of reassurance -- "I'm always here to listen" -- she suddenly felt the tension leave her body. Her gut had told her from the start that the captain was a decent guy, and she was inclined to believe it. He had that cocky charisma she'd encountered many times, but instead of the usual thoughtlessness or downright egotism, it was accompanied by a comforting quality that felt very genuine. She had a feeling working for David was going to be a nice change from the previous jerk she'd been saddled with.

She looked up from the guitar strings she'd been staring at intently and returned the smile.

"Thanks, Cap," she said. "I'll do my best not to screw up. Much. I mean, I'm bound to screw up somethin' at some point, that seems to be kind of a pattern with me. But hopefully it'll just be burning the canned beans and not crashing us into a space station."

She spoke the words with the same cheerful, casual tone she would've used if she was describing a favorite hobby of hers.

"So, Cap, since you know about my wild criminal past, d'you wanna tell me a little about yourself?"

[David Maverick]

David smiled, which widened into a grin as Briar talked about screwing up. He liked the attitude, and the casual tone with which she spoke of crashing the ship. He voiced his thoughts as he thought them:

"Screw ups are inevitable; what matters is how you handle it when it happens."

As for himself... He folded his arms and drew a breath. His confident, winning smile cocked slightly as if he was about to reveal a deep secret or crazy story.

"I'm from Bernadette. Raised by my mother and three older sisters."


That got another quirk in the corner of his mouth as a silent 'you can imagine what that must have been like'

"Joined the Air Force straight out of high school, flew fighters in the war,"

There was a slight shrug of a shoulder there as if he could - or wished he could - shrug off the entire war.

"Stayed in the military a while until I got bored and a friend knew a guy who knew the bossman here. Started as pilot and wound up captaining this beauty."

He referred to the ship as if he was being sarcastic about its beauty but there was definitely affection in his tone.

"Never married -"

He stopped suddenly, unsure why he had vocalised that needless piece of information. He exhaled almost like a chuckle.

"Never been to the edge of space, either," he added like he was making a joke in an attempt to make the marriage comment seem like a setup to something humorous rather than the somewhat Freudian slip it was.